North Korea made the provocative assertion last week that ongoing U.S.-ROK summer military exercises are a “prelude to nuclear war,” but despite the bombast, NK Pro analysis of state media output suggests that the DPRK is less concerned about the allies’ joint drills this year than it was in 2023.

Data collected using the KCNA Watch website and NK Pro research tools shows that mentions of keywords related to joint drills in DPRK state media is less than one-third the level observed in 2017, during the height of the “fire and fury” era, and less than half